By Xinhua
Ankara : The Iraqi president’s visit to Turkey just one week after Ankara ended its weeklong military mission inside northern Iraq shows the readiness of both sides to ease tensions between them in the interest of their vital economic ties.
The two countries have been at loggerheads over the issue of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), but this time their spat finally gave way, at least for the moment, to concerns that lingering tensions would impair their trade and economic cooperation, the importance of which neither side can afford to neglect, analysts said.
CLOSE TIES IN ENERGY AND ECONOMY FIELDS
At the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani arrived on Friday on a fence-mending mission to push for closer economic ties between the two countries, just one week after Ankara abruptly ended a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.
The invitation for Talabani to visit Turkey was issued the very day Turkey launched its latest ground offensive, and while gun smoke was still drifting, the Iraqi president decided to set off for Ankara.
However, analysts said the visit came as no surprise in view of the close ties between the two countries in the fields of energy and economy.
Considering the importance of its energy and economic cooperation with Iraq, Turkey believes that it is in its best interests to improve ties with Iraq. The fact that Turkey buys oilfrom Iraq through a twin pipeline running from northern Iraq to a Turkish Mediterranean port is a case in point.
Turkey’s Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said during Talabani’s visit that the two sides discussed projects aimed at transporting Iraqi oil and natural gas to Turkey.
Iraq has also become an increasingly important market for Turkish products ranging from food to textiles.
Turkish Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen said in a speech to the visiting Iraqi delegation that bilateral trade was projected to reach 20 billion U.S. dollars in two years’ time, from more than 3.5 billion dollars in 2007 and 940 million dollars in 2003.
“Our aim is to sign a free trade accord with Iraq within a short period of time,” he said.
Iraq, on the other hand, sees Ankara as an important partner in energy cooperation, post-war reconstruction and humanitarian assistance.
Talabani told a meeting with Turkish business leaders that Iraq wants “to establish strategic relations in every area including oil, the economy, trade, culture and politics.” He called on Turkish companies to invest in Iraq.
In addition, analysts said the Iraqi government is eager to seek centralized control over the country’s oil resources at a time when the regional administration of northern Iraq has approved several contracts with international companies.
After a meeting with Guler, Iraq’s Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said the Iraqi central government is in charge of the administration of natural resources and that “agreements not approved by the central government will not be recognized.”
U.S. WELCOMES TALABANI’S VISIT TO TURKEY
The U.S. Department of State has expressed pleasure over Talabani’s two-day visit to Turkey, saying it encourages good-neighborliness and talks between the two nations.
Senior U.S. officials said there was still room for improvement in the timeliness and depth of the dialogue. Washington supports the efforts of the two countries to improve ties and strengthen cooperation through dialogue and hopes that they would work together to resolve the issue of the PKK.
In addition, the U.S. also wants to see an improvement in Turkey’s ties with the regional administration of northern Iraq.
According to some observers, Turkey’s latest ground offensive, the biggest anti-PKK operation in a decade, had the consent of Washington, which provided intelligence to assist the counter-PKK attack.
Nevertheless, Washington soon exerted pressure for a swift halt to the operation, fearing a prolonged stay could destabilize northern Iraq and harm U.S. ties with Iraqi Kurds.
A LONG WAY TO GO
Addressing a joint press conference Friday, Talabani called the PKK a “common problem” for both Iraq and Turkey and said more dialogues and communication between the two nations was needed to solve the problem.
But analysts said it is unlikely for the two sides to join forces to crack down on the PKK.
They said it is the regional administration of northern Iraq that holds substantial clout in the PKK issue and it has not shown any softening of its position on refusing to label the PKK as a terrorist group.
Therefore, Ankara has accused the regional administration of northern Iraq of sheltering and indulging the PKK and has refused to hold dialogue with the regional administration.
Under such circumstances, Talabani’s one-sided wish to join forces to crack down on the PKK is likely to go unrequited again this time, analysts said.
And Turkey’s latest offensive provides a good opportunity for it to adopt broad measures to help improve the living conditions of Turkey’s Kurds, help them with economic development and respect their traditional culture, which is a fundamental way of uprooting the causes of terrorism, analysts said.